Twenty Years Later: Crossing Destinies
by fireprincessforever
Summary: It is 20 years after the war and Fire Lord Zuko has a sixteen year old daughter, Maraza,a firebending prodigy and the new Fire Nation Princess. Her strong willed personality and love for adventure leads her to Republic City, but a turn of events happen that are enough to lead her back home. While there, she uncovers a secret. Zuko took his chance; now its her turn to save the world
1. Chapter 1-prologe

"THAT'S NOT GOOD ENOUGH!" She growled into my ear for what seemed like the fifty quadrillionth time that morning. I was on the brink of crying; I'd been trying to create a simple stream of lightning all morning. It was bad enough I was being screamed at by my own aunt for barely being able to make a spark, but did I mention I had been training since six that morning under twenty pounds of armor in ninety degree weather? Yeah, I didn't think so.

I looked over at my father, who had been leaning against the rail of the ship watching me train for the past four hours, my eyes sending a desperate plea for help. He pushed off of the rail and walked calmly over to me, pushing my sweaty, unkempt black bangs out of my eyes. He smiled at me, then looked over to his sister. "Let her rest, Azula. Maraza always works so hard." I had never been more grateful to my father than I was at that moment. Azula may be my aunt and my lightning bending teacher, but she's also controlling, manipulative, and, well...just plain mean. That much hadn't changed in thirty years. Azula shot a glare over to my father. "I'm teaching her, Zuko, and when I work her I can do whatever I want." I didn't know exactly what to think at that moment, so I just went with this; 'Gosh, if looks could kill, we'd have a war on our hands.'

"Azula," He began, clinching his fists at his side. I could tell by the look on my father's face that he was struggling to keep his temper in check. "Maraza needs a break. You may be her teacher, but I'm her father; and frankly, I'm pretty sure I know her better than anyone." Azula looked ready to completely lash out. She lunged at him. He pushed me behind him, guarding me. I stumbled slightly, almost dropping to my knees. I was exhausted. She threw a punch aimed at my father, which flamed up within a second. He backed up to avoid it, but in the process accidentally knocked me onto the ground. I hit the ground hard, groaning as I squeezed my eyes shut in an attempt to get rid of my sudden pounding headache. My father was absolutely furious now, I could tell by his stance. "Azula," He growled, his gold eyes blazing. "Maraza needs a break. Look at her, she's on the ground! Nobody masters lightning bending in a day, especially not at ten years old!" This time Azula decided to get cocky. It just made my father all the more furious. "If I remember right, Zuko, for the longest time, you couldn't even create lightning. What would make me believe you knew anything about it, much less enough to teach that worthless daughter of yours?" Her words stung even more than being knocked to the ground.

My father saw the sad look I got on my face when she said that. His face pretty much screamed 'you've gone too far' "Azula, if you don't give her the rest of the day off, I'll-" "You'll what?" She gloated, advancing forward. "I'll tell her about our Agni Kai. Remember, the night you almost snapped?" He said coolly She gasped quietly; her cocky smile had turned into a look of pure horror. "You. Wouldn't. DARE." He smiled. "Try me." That did it.

Azula advanced toward my father even more, forcing him almost on top of me. He guarded my fallen form with his back, facing toward Azula as he shot off some pretty huge fire blasts. But she had blue fire as well, which I remember my father telling me he never mastered. As he continued shooting off blasts, he turned slightly to face me, whispering in my ear. "Maraza." He shook me a little. I had fallen asleep from my pure exhaustion. "Maraza, baby, wake up. I need your help." I forced my eyes open. "Wha? Father?" I whispered, on the verge of falling asleep again. "Yes, Maraza. It's me, listen up though. I know you're tired, but I need your help." I saw a fire ball come dangerously close to us and knew instantly what was going on. "I know what I need to do." I said softly, but confidently as my father helped me slowly to my feet.

I wobbled a little; my legs were stiff from being curled up on the ground. Taking a fire bending stance, I put my hands up in a double guard, my left palm open and facing toward me. Closing my eyes, I took a slow, deep breath to clear my head, and adjusted my feet just right. My father stood near me just in case Azula tried to pull anything that was too advanced for me to handle. She rushed at me the second she saw I was up. Seeing the hot blue fireballs she threw at me, I immediately knew she was attempting to get me back on the ground. All I did was dodge her fire; I had to keep my head clear. As Azula herself once told me, lightning generation is all about keeping a clear head. Little did she know, I was about to use her own advice against her. I wait until she got about ten feet from me, then dug in and struck a small lightning bolt about a foot from were she stood. The blast was enough to knock her off of her feet, at least for the moment. 'Well, Aunt Azula," I thought, grinning. 'Now we BOTH know what it's like to hit the ground.'

My father turned to face me, tilting my head up toward his and placing a proud hand on my shoulder. "You sure gave her what she deserved. I'm proud of you, my little Fire Bolt." He whispered softly into my ear. I grinned; I loved it when he used my nickname. Then suddenly I yawned, totally ruining the moment. My father was already easing my armor off of my body, as if he expected me to collapse from exhaustion at any second. I must have been hanging around with my Dragon-Horse, Zesta too much; I swear for about thirty seconds I fell asleep standing up.

"Maraza," I felt my father lightly touch my shoulder. He must have managed to get my armor off when I'd briefly fallen asleep. "Maraza, baby, come on. You need to rest." I opened my mouth to argue, but all that came out was an incredibly loud yawn. Groaning as he swooped me up in his strong arms, I fought to keep my eyes open. "Zesta," I mumbled as I fought back another yawn, my voice thick with sleep. "Have to...take her for...a swim..." I moaned in exhaustion, finally allowing sleep to overtake me as I snuggled deeper into his arms. He walked into my room and lightly kicked my partly open bedroom door. Walking over to my bed, he carefully laid my sleeping form onto the soft mattress, careful not to wake me as he slid off my knee high black riding boots and threw my favorite silky red blanket over my thin frame. "Thin, but strong. Yes, so very strong you are." He muttered as he knelt down next to my bed and dimmed the light, stroking my cheek with his thumb as he watched my chest rise and fall. "I don't care what Azula says," He began softly, still stroking my cheek. "I know my little Fire Bolt is going to be a great warrior."


	2. Chapter 2-Hot tempers & shiny grey eyes

Chapter one

I shot off fire balls left and right. Throwing myself into a midair spin, I executed a perfect lightning bolt before landing cleanly on my feet. "WAHOO! And she STICKS the landing!" I walked over to where my father was watching me, a smile on my face. "Well?" I asked hopefully, crossing my fingers behind my back. "Will you advance me?" He smiled. "Your forms have greatly improved since your last demonstration, Maraza. These past six years have been kind to your training." He looked me straight in the eyes. "Very well. We will start on the next set tomorrow." I pouted like a sad puppy. "Aw, come on, father! Please oh please?" I begged. "I can take it; I haven't even broken a sweat, see?" To prove it I arched a flame over his head with a jumping outer cresent, backed up and ran into a ten foot long jump across the deck, jabbing the air with my punches as flames shot out of my fists. I landed, launching straight into a string of backflips back over to him. He seemed fairly impressed considering I'd been training for an hour already with my forms. The extra demonstration did leave me blowing slightly, but I didn't let my father see so.

He grinned and smoothed my shoulder length black hair back. "My, my, all of this extra training has turned you into quite the little spitfire." I playfully rolled my eyes. "Father, I'm sixteen now. There's nothing 'little' about it." He just smiled. "Should I have one of the grooms tack Zesta for you? This next set's going to be mounted." This time the eye roll was one hundred percent real. "I'm strong, you said. I'm perfectly capable of saddling my own horse." You would think he'd be mad at my comment, but he just smiled. I bowed slightly and trotted off to Zesta's stall to tack her up. She pranced at the end of her reins as I led her out onto the deck, throwing her head as her black mane flew around in the wind. This horse and I were so similar, it was almost scary. We both loved to train and go on crazy adventures, that I was one hundred percent certain of.

My father gave me a leg up onto Zesta's polished brown leather saddle. We didn't do much since it was reaching the hottest part of the day, just some Dressage, sword basics and my basic firebending forms mounted. Although the high sun made it hot out, the extra power it gave my mounted forms made them nothing short of deadly.

I swung off her back a short twenty minutes later. "Maraza, if you're not too tired I'd like show you one more thing." My father said gently as I handed Zesta off to her groom. To put it bluntly, I was on the edge of dropping, but I knew this was my own fault for putting in that unnecessary demonstration. My hands were red and almost raw from Zesta pulling at her bit during our Dressage drills. Sh almost pulled the reins out of my hands due to the force with which the mare threw her head. That horse just loved to go! I shook my head slightly to clear it, forcing myself to find my second wind, and nodded. "What's next?"

"Drill her again, Azula." My father looked over at her a little. I huffed and lined myself up again, not even attempting to hide my annoyance. Azula shot a few flames toward me; I filled in the gaps with my own flames so that a circle was formed around me. My father looked over at me as I sustained the flames. "Good. Keep going." I quickly summoned lightning to my fingertips, listening to the voilent hiss of connecting sub-elements as I brought the lightning toward the flames. Sustaining the large dome of connected hot and cold fire above me with an open palm, I looked in my father's direction for approval. He silently nodded. "Finish. Remember your reflexes." I crouched to the ground and let the main flame dance out of my palm.

Tucking myself into a reverse summer sault, I rolled out of the dome...just a smidge too late. I grunted loudly as the lightning exploded in my face, knocking me backward onto the hard metal floor of the ship. Rolling into a stand, I brushed myself off angrily. "Maraza," My father began, concern in his voice. "It's alright, just-" I cut him off. "NO father! Just NO! I'm sick and tired of this constant training. The war's OVER; what's the point?" He sighed. "The POINT is, you never know when you-"

He was cut off yet again by my shrill whistle and the pounding of hooves. Zesta, my striking black dragon-horse, cantered out onto the deck, her lean, fit body shimmering in the sun. "Forget this," I said as I grabbed her rein, my voice blazing as hot as my fire. "I'm going for a ride." Jumping into the saddle, I looked back at my father's shocked expression. "Don't be surprised if I'm not back in time for dinner."

I kissed Zesta into a canter, taking a two-point position as I asked her to jump the ship's rail. Giving her a gentle burst of flame with my heel, I asked her to find her stride in the air. She flew about twenty feet before crashing into the water, making an enormus wave. We left an angry-and not to mention soaking wet-firelord in our wake.

It took us about five miles of swimming before we even came close to reaching land. I looked at the shoreline of the area; it looked kind of like a city. 'Well, it's land. Why not?' I thought as I kissed my mare into swimming faster. We finally found ourselves about ten feet from the dock when I coaxed Zesta into thrusting herself up onto it. "Poor girl," I cooed to her, stroking her mane as we walked. "You're exhausted, aren't you?" She gave a tired snort. I decided to give her a break; I swung off of her back, landing lightly on my feet. This place sure was crowded.

I took her reins in my hand and carefully led her through the bustling streets. I was so busy looking around I didn't see where I was going until-"ugh!" I plopped to the ground as somebody rammed into me, a flame coming out of my butt in the process. "Hey, hotshot, watch where you're going. Don't you-" I almost finished my snappy, Azula style comment...that is, until I got a glimpse of those eyes.


	3. Chapter 3-Author

Guys, I am so sorry I haven't updated in so long! My summer was crazy busy, school is crazy, had a rough week last week, just crazy! Anyway, I have some ideas for later on in the story, but don't know how to tie them in. Reviews might just help me think of something. ;)

~fireprincessforever~


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